Shows / Background Briefing
Background Briefing
Background Briefing is the ABC's flagship investigative journalism podcast. Its award-winning investigations and documentaries expose cover-ups, corruption, real-life mysteries, whistleblowing, crime, fraud and miscarriages of justice — often before these stories receive mainstream attention. The Background Briefing podcast brings you true stories not everyone will want you to hear, told by trusted reporters across Australia. This Australian podcast makes investigative journalism bingeable…
Episodes
- Background Briefing
The RSL at War
On the eve of Anzac day the RSL is facing its biggest test yet, as diggers question whether their leaders have their true interests at heart.
- Background Briefing
Doctors and suicide: Why does it keep happening?
In the last few months there has been another cluster of young doctors taking their own lives. Critics say the culture of medicine and doctors' own fear of…
- Background Briefing
Nightmare build
Buying a new apartment? Defects are driving many owners to court to get their leaks and defects fixed after they discover changes to insurance law means they…
- Background Briefing
Katherine Hospital: Back from the brink
Just five years ago this Northern Territory hospital was facing closure. Its doctors were out of their depth and indigenous patients were leaving the wards in…
- Background Briefing
The schools squeeze: how the apartment boom is overcrowding classrooms
Too many students and not enough classrooms. How did government's get it so wrong? David Lewis investigates.
Background BriefingHow did Westpac's e-waste end up on the worst dump in the world?
There's a roaring international racket in hazardous e-waste. This is the story of how one of our biggest banks discovered its e-waste dumped on West Africa's…
- Background Briefing
How Centrelink's 'robodebt' ran off the rails
The government's troubled debt recovery system has caused an uproar. Thousands of welfare recipients have been hit with debts which they have no idea how they…
- Background Briefing
No shelter at the showground
An Australian town rises up against homeless people who set up a tent shantytown at the local showground. Bronwyn Adcock reports on a big city problem that's…
- Background Briefing
Up the creek: Less water for the Murray-Darling Basin
The strategy to fix the Murray-Darling hangs in the balance as states and irrigators squabble over returning more water back to the river.
- Background Briefing
Surrogacy secrets
As Asian countries crack down on surrogacy, it's booming here in Australia. The rules say a surrogate can't be paid, but desperation is driving some people to…
- Background Briefing
Bullied to death: the short life of Tyrone Unsworth
The 13-year-old Brisbane schoolboy committed suicide after years of being bullied at schools for being different. David Lewis investigates did his school let…
- Background Briefing
Why did my baby die?
Summer series: Six babies are born still every day in Australia. Up to a third of those deaths might be preventable, but experts say fatalistic and outdated…
- Background Briefing
Death in Kalgoorlie
Summer series: The death of a young indigenous boy sparked a town riot at the court house, and the search for answers as to why he died. Sarah Dingle reports.
- Background Briefing
Sis, we've got your back
Summer series: The women who spoke out against a protected paedophile in their midst were trolled and threatened by their own community. Their story is…
- Background Briefing
The death of VET FEE HELP
Summer series: It was the student subsidy that was too good to be true. Students were the losers when billions were rorted by cowboys who spotted a government…
- Background Briefing
Insurance industry stuck in 'dark ages', say mental health advocates
Doctor shopping. Delaying vital medical care. Digging into your private records. When it comes to your mental health, are insurers playing fair? Natasha…
- Background Briefing
Why is CSIRO losing its brightest stars?
Some of CSIRO's top women astronomers are quitting due to a dysfunctional workplace that they say protects harassers and punishes them instead. It's not just a…
- Background Briefing
The Joint Strike Fighter
US president-elect Donald Trump is on record saying the JSF is 'not a very good plane'. Reporter Sarah Dingle investigates one of our most expensive and…
- Background Briefing
System black
When a massive storm ripped through South Australia the state went into 'system black'. With the blackout barely hours old it became a political football…
- Background Briefing
Death in Kalgoorlie
When a 14-year-old Indigenous boy was allegedly run over and killed by a 55-year-old white man driving a ute, a WA mining town erupted. Sarah Dingle…
- Background Briefing
Murder on the Derwent
It's the murder trial that split Tasmania. But is Sue Neill-Fraser innocent or is she - as the jury found - a calculating, manipulative liar who murdered her…
- Background Briefing
The China Syndrome
Is Chinese soft power curtailing academic freedom in our universities? And why are Chinese students afraid of speaking out against the Chinese communist party?…
- Background Briefing
The battle over Sydney's heart
The eviction of social housing tenants from Sydney's CBD is nearly complete. Heritage, history and the wellbeing of an ageing population has been traded off to…
- Background Briefing
Betting the farm
It's been a year of wild weather and farmers are asking is climate change biting harder and faster than predicted?
- Background Briefing
Early inheritance syndrome
Children and carers are trying to get their hands on the assets of elderly and vulnerable people who still have many years of life ahead of them. As David…
- Background Briefing
The body in the freezer
In 1979 an Adelaide lawyer was shot and his body stuffed in a freezer with frozen food. His boyfriend was found guilty. Now he's appealing that and now…
- Background Briefing
No love lost in the Greens
You might not know it, but the Greens have a right wing. Mind you, they deny it. Inside the split in the Greens.
- Background Briefing
Why did my baby die?
Six babies are born still every day in Australia. Up to a third of those deaths might be preventable, but experts say fatalistic and outdated attitudes are…
- Background Briefing
Battle of the brewery
How do three casuals in Perth get to decide on a wages deal at the CUB brewery in Melbourne?
- Background Briefing
The Brexit factor: Why one in four voters abandoned the major parties
Disenchanted and feeling left behind one in four voters deserted the old parties. Reporter David Lewis investigates the Brexit factor
Background BriefingThe brutal politics of a virus that won't go away
Putin's war on drugs is fuelling an AIDS crisis, while in Uganda HIV+ people are being criminalised. Natasha Mitchell reports.
- Background Briefing
Black Saturday's long shadow
Seven and a half years after the deadly Black Saturday bushfires, the ordeal is still not over for many. An historic half billion dollar class action…
- Background Briefing
Banks on trial
Three of Australia’s biggest banks stand accused of manipulating a key part of the wiring behind our financial system. As Mario Christodoulou found out, the…
Background BriefingAn inside job
Migrants and asylum seekers attempting to enter the UK sometimes use boats, but more often hide themselves in cars and trucks. To the frustration of UK…
- Background Briefing
Selling the stem cell promise
Clinics across the country are offering stem cell therapy for everything from Alzheimer's to arthritis, but some patients are coming to harm, with little…
- Background Briefing
The Extra Mile
As the number of Aboriginal kids in out-of-home care skyrockets, Victoria's child protection system has failed to reconnect many of these children with their…
- Background Briefing
The price of milk
Thousands of dairy farmers have been hit with huge debts after Murray Goulburn misread the market and blew up the milk price. David Lewis investigates how it…
- Background Briefing
The price of politics
For the first time, Australia's top ASX companies are given a score for how open they are their political spending. Di Martin reports our biggest corporations…
- Background Briefing
Sis we've got your back
When Indigenous leader Roy 'Dootch' Kennedy was finally jailed for his sex crimes, the women who stood up for his victim were pilloried and harassed. Bronwyn…
Background BriefingTaken to the cleaners
The exploitation of vulnerable workers goes far beyond the 7-Eleven scandal. There's a huge labour black market in cleaning and hospitality ripping off…
- Background Briefing
The inconvenient scientists
A third of the CSIRO's climate scientists have been sacked. It's part of a radical change in direction at Australia's premier science organisation. Will this…
Background BriefingIs the fertility industry misleading women?
Freezing your eggs is a hot topic for women in their thirties, and more of them are doing it. But is the IVF industry giving women false hope about their real…
- Background Briefing
A licence to pollute: Mount Isa mines
Mount Isa Mines is one Australia's top polluters. Now families are starting to sue for the health impacts on their children.
- Background Briefing
Silencing public servants
The Fair Work Commission has ruled that Centrelink's decision to sack an employee for anonymous posts critical of the department on a discussion group was a…
- Background Briefing
Manildra money: did a big political donor buy favourable legislation?
What's the link between NSW's ethanol in fuel laws and political donations?
- Background Briefing
Crack a baby's back
Chiropractors are manipulating the spines of newborns to treat colic. The practice has caused an almighty uproar in the profession
- Background Briefing
Ebola with wings: the TB crisis on our doorstop
A deadly new strain of tuberculosis is incubating on the small PNG island of Daru, 10 kilometres off the top of northern Australia. Experts are calling it…
- Background Briefing
The education free-for-all
The VET FEE HELP scheme has descended into chaos. Enrolment forms were being flogged on Gumtree. The Turnbull government will have to write off billions in bad…
Background BriefingQueer, young and homeless
Why does being young and queer make you more at risk of being homeless? David Lewis investigates why home is not a safe place to be.
Background BriefingThe trouble with quad bikes
Quad bikes are more popular than ever, but a disturbing number of fatalities has manufacturers under fire for making bikes that safety experts say are…
- Background Briefing
Bridge to nowhere: The plan to give away Moore Park
A mysterious bridge to nowhere in the middle of a a public parkland that big sporting interests are eyeing off.
- Background Briefing
Should you trust your pharmacist?
Pretty vitamins and supplements are bankrolling today's Pharmacies. But with no proof of actual health benefit why is your friendly pharmacist giving them…
- Background Briefing
Is the Joint Strike Fighter the right plane for Australia?
It's not terribly fast or agile, and the high tech helmet could take the pilots head off if they need to eject. Who's idea is this?
- Background Briefing
The TAFE plunder
TAFE has been the collateral damage from the federal government’s botched $6 billion scheme to fund vocational education and training. Reporter Paddy Manning…
Background BriefingAboriginal fishing: When culture becomes criminal
Wayne Carberry's traditional fishing rights are protected by law. So why are his people being jailed and fined for it? Bronwyn Adcock investigates a 21st…
- Background Briefing
Glencore's acid test
To build the McArthur River mine they had to move a mighty river. Then the waste dump spontaneously ignited. Belatedly the federal government realised…
Background BriefingThe tragedy of Bacchus Marsh hospital
The Victorian state government wants to limit the damage following the finding that seven babies who died at a regional hospital probably shouldn't have. Will…
- Background Briefing
Why did Fazel Chegeni Nejad have to die?
The red flags were obvious: Fazel Chegeni's mental health was in decline. Medical staff issued warnings, and even Immigration case workers advocated for his…
Background BriefingInside the Matildas' strike
The Matildas are our most successful football team ever and they're also the first national team to go on strike. Sarah Dingle investigates why the women…